The Provider Locator program is an excellent option for putting your practice on the (physical and online) map and positioning yourself for new clients
Terry Silance is director, Audiology/ENT, CareCredit at CareCredit, Costa Mesa, Calif.
Every hearing professional is looking for ways to attract new patients. Practices offering systems that provide financing plans have a substantial advantage over those that do not; practices that have a credit financing program and also have a way in which to uniquely position their practices to reach a new audience base can be a game-changer.
Last year, according to CareCredit’s internal data, hearing care professionals offering CareCredit administered an additional $21 million in care to patients who found them through one of the company’s most popular resources—the Online Provider Locator (Figure 1).
Accessing a $32 Billion Network
While most dispensing professionals may think of CareCredit as a hearing care financing network, in reality CareCredit serves over 140,000 health care providers nationwide in the fields of hearing health care, dentistry, vision, cosmetics, dermatology, veterinary, and chiropractic practices. The company’s network is used by over 7 million cardholders with more than $32 billion in available credit.
With an easy application process, high approvals, and instant credit decisions, adding the CareCredit health care credit card and presenting it along with other payment options is simple to do. Once patients have this financing, they can use it at any other practice that uses CareCredit, obtaining services for themselves and other members of their family as long as they have available credit.
CareCredit strives to help provide quality service and educate customers regarding their ongoing options for their health care needs. Every month, the company provides information to cardholders on the different ways that they can use their account in practices offering the program. This entails a variety of marketing materials to communicate with patients, including Provider Locator mailings that give cardholders a list of practices in their area that accept CareCredit, with priority listing for practices that use the program the most.
Patients also receive e-mail notifications and e-newsletters to remind them that they can use their available credit at a wide range of health care providers offering the program—including hearing care professionals—to get additional care without having to reapply.
Become Part of an Online Tool That Helps 400,000 Patients Each Month
Figure 1. The Online Provider Locator is a tool used by up to 400,000 people each month looking for a health care provider that supplies financing options.
One of the most popular resources available to help practices attract new patients is the CareCredit Online Provider Locator (Figure 1). This tool gives patients access to every practice in their area that offers this financing simply by searching for a medical profession, zip code, name, city, or phone number at www.carecredit.com.
The Provider Locator is used by up to 400,000 patients each month to find a practice in their area that offers CareCredit. Many patients using the Provider Locator already have CareCredit, so when they visit your office/practice, they are less likely to leave tested-and-not-sold; they’re more comfortable financially to accept recommended technology and achieve the better hearing that they desire.
Providing Options
Although most people periodically experience “financial claustrophobia,” the feeling that there are few options can become particularly acute for people confronted with a payment of several thousand dollars. When it comes to making hearing care more accessible, patients want as many payment options as possible.
Many patients first discover the Provider Locator when visiting the Web site to learn more about the no interest (if paid within the promotional period; otherwise interest assessed from purchase date; minimum monthly payments required) and low interest payment plans available through the health care credit card.
A recent study found that, for audiology patients, being offered a no interest financing option is second in importance only to the quality of the hearing aid being purchased.1 In addition, when patients pay for their hearing care with CareCredit, they spend an average of $1,591 more than those who don’t, according to our data. This means that cardholders are accepting recommended technology more often, will experience better hearing, and will ultimately be more satisfied than patients who use other forms of payment to pay for their hearing care and settle for technology that fails to meet their needs.
More Ways to Attract Patients
How to Update Your Provider Locator Listing
If you offer CareCredit, it’s important that you make sure that the information in your listing is up to date. Go to www. carecredit.com, select the “Provider Locator” tab, click the “Update Your Listing” button, and follow the steps.
In addition to the Provider Locator, practices offering CareCredit can take advantage of other free practice-building resources, including patient brochures and counter displays.
Dispensing professionals can use the payment calculator, payment options form, and presentation chart when discussing their recommendation to show patients how paying over time with a low monthly payment can make hearing aids more affordable. CareCredit also has available a Advertising Toolkit that includes banners and buttons that make integrating payment options into a practice’s Web site fast and easy. Practices can even add a direct link to the company’s patient application, so patients who don’t have financing can secure it before they come in for hearing testing or fitting.
If your practice is not enrolled in CareCredit and you want new patients to find you through the online Provider Locator, go to www.carecredit.com, select the “Provider Locator” tab, and click the “Enroll Now” button. Once enrolled, you will be able to take advantage of all of CareCredit’s free programs and resources.
Correspondence can be addressed to HR or to Terry Silance at .
Reference
- Inquire Market Research. Purchase behavior among hearing loss patients: results of a study with patients requiring a hearing device. Santa Ana, Calif: Inquire Market Research; 2010.
